Baseball Sweeps First SoCon Series Over Furman
3/13/2011 11:20:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern (11-5, 3-0) took the sweep in the opening series of Southern Conference play with a 14-7 victory over Furman (6-11, 1-4) Sunday afternoon, March 13th. All nine starters in the batting order for the Eagles recorded a hit and all but two tallied multi-hit games. Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.) reached base in 10-straight plate appearances dating back to Saturday's 11-1 win over the Paladins. The junior captain finished hitting .750 in the series and raised his batting average to .531 on the year.
Georgia Southern scored the 14 runs on 18 hits, two less than Saturday's 20 hit total, and one Furman error. The bottom-third of the order combined for seven runs, six hits and five RBIs. Ben Morgan (Evans, Ga.) and Brent Pugh (Atlanta, Ga.) each scored three runs, and Pugh doubled three times in three at-bats. Morgan drove in three runs with back-to-back singles in the fifth and sixth innings.
Matt Murray (Spring City, Pa.) only struck out two batters and allowed just his fourth walk of the season, but had another solid outing out of the bullpen, lowering his already impressive ERA to 0.47. The junior pitcher earned his third win of the season in relief of Andy Moye (Alpharetta, Ga.) and allowed three hits and one unearned run in four innings of work. Moye was cruising until the fifth inning, when he was unable to get any outs. The senior captain was tagged with four hits and four earned runs in four innings of action.
The Eagles took a 6-1 lead after three innings of play, scoring multiple runs in the first and second innings. Shawn Payne (Stone Mountain, Ga.), who extended his reached-base streak to 45 games, led off the bottom of the first with a home run off the Jack Stallings Field sign in right field to get the scoring started for GSU. Garren Palmer (Dalton, Ga.) drove in a two-out run in the first inning after back-to-back hits by Phillips and Steve Cochrane (Mooresville, N.C.) put a runner in scoring position.
Tyler Wood, who started on the mound for Furman, struck out the side in the first inning but allowed the early lead. He lasted less than two innings and gave up six hits and four runs. He received a no-decision after the Paladins tied the game at 6-6 in the fifth inning. Jay Friedman received the loss, allowing four runs and four hits in 2.1 innings of work.
Furman batted around in the fifth inning and took advantage of two Georgia Southern errors and a pair of walks to score five runs. Will Owens had the only RBI single in the inning and the other four runs scored on a fielder's choice, error and a passed ball. The Paladins' offense added another run in the sixth inning, but was not able to keep up with the scoring by the Eagles.
The Georgia Southern offense exploded for seven runs in the fifth and sixth innings combined and tacked on another run in the seventh to take the 14-7 lead. RBI singles by Morgan and Michael Burruss (Marietta, Ga.) plated three runs in the fifth inning, before the Eagles batted around in the sixth, scoring four more runs.
Pugh plated Morgan, who walked with one out in the seventh inning, with a double to right center, for the Eagles final run.
Georgia Southern travels to Georgia Tech for two games, a 6 p.m. contest on Tuesday and a 4 p.m. game on Wednesday before heading to Birmingham, Ala., to face Samford.
To order baseball tickets for upcoming games call the Georgia Southern Athletic Ticket Office at 800-GSU-WINS. Single games tickets are available at the gate for $8 for adults and $4 for youth (3-12).
All games can be heard on Eagle 102.9 FM in Statesboro and are also available online at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/Eaglevision beginning 30 minutes prior to first pitch. Ryan Chambers of the Georgia Southern Radio Network will call all the action.
Fans may follow Georgia Southern Baseball by visiting GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/baseball or check in at twitter.com/GSAthletics or facebook.com/GSAthletics for short updates.
